NNPC to fast-track local capacity development, as Egina projects set to add 200,000bpd

The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) will accelerate local capacity development in all its operations within the nation’s Oil and Gas industry.

NNPC Group Managing Director, Dr. Maikanti Baru, disclosed this while delivering a keynote address during an occasion to mark the Egina Manifold Sail Away celebration in Port Harcourt on Tuesday.

In crude oil production, the manifold is the gathering point designed to permit the use of pump-down tools, provide for individual well tests, handle injection of chemicals for inhibition of corrosion as well as provide for artificial lift and control.

As a partner in the Egina Project, the NNPC in 2013, alongside four other companies (TUPNI, SAPETRO, Petrobras, and CNOOC), contracted the construction of the Subsea Production Systems (SPS) module for the project to FMC Technologies (FMC), which later sub-contracted the fabrication and load-out of six manifolds to a fully-indigenous local fabrication company, Aveon Offshore Ltd, a development the GMD said justified NNPC’s commitment to promoting local capacity in the nation’s Oil and Gas Industry.

“By getting involved in this laudable feat, NNPC has not only demonstrated the growing efficacy of the Nigerian Content Act, it has also reaffirmed the Corporation’s commitment to local content development,” Dr. Baru stated.

“We are strongly committed to the successful implementation of all provisions of this Act to improve and accelerate local capacity development in all NNPC’s projects,” he added.

According to the GMD, the Nigerian Content Act has given rise to a number of opportunities within the industry which include the emergence of new local vendors and suppliers; training and mentoring of young engineers; improvement of artisanal and other new skill sets critical to the industry.

Dr. Baru further observed that the NNPC would always support initiatives aimed at domesticating the ample opportunities in the Oil and Gas Industry which promise to  improve thousands of lives in the country.

“There will be room for more of these opportunities in the nearest future as we are fully committed and determined to achieving sustainable domestication of a large percentage of the other modules on the Egina project. We will continue to touch your lives in many more positive ways,” he assured.

He called on all stakeholders within the local content community to sustain the tempo of promoting the huge impact by replicating similar new projects on a larger scale across the industry.

He explained that today’s event was a continuation of NNPC’s unflinching commitment to the Egina Project, following similar involvement in September last year where the Load-out ceremony of the Egina Umbilicals, Flowlines and Riser (UFR) module was recorded at the Saipem Yard in Port Harcourt.

“This event, among others, testifies that our race to first oil from Egina field by Q4, 2018 is guaranteed,” he noted.

He reiterated that the construction of the SPS module for Egina Project has placed the Oil industry ahead in the quest to promote “Made in Nigeria Goods and Services”, as championed by the Federal Government.

In his remarks, Executive Secretary of the Nigerian Content Development & Monitoring Board (NCDMB), Engr. Simbi Wabote, lauded the Egina Project for promoting local content, stressing that the project was capable of integrating Floating Production, Storage and Offloading (FPSO) in Nigeria.

Also speaking at the occasion, Deputy Managing Director of Total, a principal partner of the Egina Project, Mr. Ahmadu Musa-Kida, said when completed by Q4 2018, the Egina Project would produce additional 200,000bpd to Nigeria’s daily crude oil production.

Shedding more light on the Project, Chairman of Aveon Offshore Limited, Mr. Tein George said the project, which gulped over $30m worth of investments, was delivered ahead of schedule with zero Loss Time Injury (LTI) in about 5.5 million man-hours.

Sanctioned by NNPC in 2013, the Egina Project is the first Deepwater Project after the enactment of the Nigerian Oil and Gas Content Development (NOGID) Act of 2010.

Adjudged the first of its kind in Nigeria, each of the 6-slots Egina production manifolds has a lifespan of 25 years subsea. While the load-out of the first set of three (3) manifolds was carried out in July 2017, the load-out of the second and final set of three Manifolds was witnessed Tuesday.